When Science Stood Still

How S. Chandrasekhar Predicted

the Existence of Black Holes

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Margaret K. McElderry Books

(Simon & Schuster)

pub. 10.14.2025

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author: Shruthi Rao

   Illustrator: Srinidhi Srinivasan

Character: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Overview:

"When scientists get things right, science leaps forward. When they get things wrong, they learn from their mistakes, and science continues to advance. But sometimes, even when scientists get it right, nobody pays attention. Then, for a while, science stands still.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was a brilliant scientist with eyes fixed toward the stars. As a young man, he developed the theory that would eventually lead to the discovery of black holes. But when he presented his findings to the world’s leading Western scientists, they scoffed at his ideas. Chandra knew he was right. But would anyone listen?

Learn the true story of a relentless scientist and his cosmic discovery that had to wait for science to change its mind."

Tantalizing taste:

"For Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, math

wasn't made up of problems, but of solutions.

Sitting by himself among his grandfather's

books in the South Indian city of Madra,

Chandra devoured books on advanced math.

He often biked to the beach to sit under the twinkling stars,

those big balls of gases made of a gazillion atoms swirling around,

gravity squishing those atoms together so hard that they combined

to give out heat and light."

And something more: A Closer Look at the back of the book explains: "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, popularly known as Chandra, was an Indian-bor American astrophysicist... He was just nineteen when, on the voyage to England, Chandra made his groundbreaking discovery. Einstein's special theory of relativity explains how speed affects mass, time, and space, especially the speed of light. Chandra thought of applying this theory to stars, because particles inside stars travel at speeds close to that of light. That is when his calculations suggested that some dying stars behave differently."

And as Shruthi Rao writes in the final pages of the story:

"This discovery has led to a better understanding

of the universe,

of how it works,

and how it began!

An understanding that came decades late because

the world ignored a brilliant young scientist.

Finally, about fifty years after Chandra first talked about

stars disappearing, he won the Nobel Prize for his work.

More than the recognition, what mattered to him was that,

finally, the world saw the truth.

And once again,

science was leaping forward."